Post by zimmerman on Oct 22, 2013 17:24:57 GMT -5
If Gene L. Coon got off to a shaky start with his brief production tenure on Wild Wild West with The Night of the Freebooters, his final two episodes--The Night of the Burning Diamond and The Night of the Murderous Spring, really showed off a master producer at work, creating two of the finest episodes in the series.
In the case of The Night of the Burning Diamond, he crafted a very intellegent, exciting hour of Science Fiction-themed WIid Wild West escapist entertainment of the highest order, creating one of the best episodes in the entire series.
The episode begins at the Serbian embassy, where James West is assigned to protect the Kara diamond from a crafty gang of jewel theives. Of course, it isn't easy for our fair James West to get into the Serbian Emabassy. As he later tells Mr. Baines in the middle of the episodes' teaser, "I was challnged by armed guards at the front gate at the entrance to your embassy, and at the corridor of your private chambers. Three times my credentials were checked, and I was searched twice, discreetly of course. And right now, I'm being observed through a peephole disguised by the portrait of your esteeemed ruler." Mr. Baines tells James that the Kara is only shown "For the most priviliged guests in an almost private showing." Yet after displaying the Cara, and after Baines' boasting at how it can never get stolen under it's present conditions--"There's only one door to the room, the hall outside is patrolled 24 hours a day, and we Serbians are jealous of our national treasures."-- The Kara diamond manages to escape under mysteruous circumstances, causing Baines to immediately place the blame on West, leading to one of the best quotes in the entire episode: "Even before I arrived in this country, I heard strange accounts of your talents, but I was unaware that you were a magician." That, in turn, leads to a great fight scene by James as he uses his explosive walking stick to help beat up some Unsurly characters at the Serbian embassy. Occasionally, Mr. Baines gets to be a litle uptight with our boys, but a great moment occurs when he visits the Wanderer, expertly quoted by Niecie in her review:
Baines: A diamond would no more explode than this would! [Takes up billiard ball and shakes it.]
Artie: Don't shake that!
Jim: [Grabs billiard ball and throws it out window, where it explodes.]
"Baines has a lot to learn about hangin' with our boys!"
In time, the mastermind behind this sordid scheme emerges: Morgan Midas, A master jewel thief and occasional scientist, who tinkers with electricity, yet his passion is burning diamonds at 4000 degrees so that he can
steal even more diamonds to make him invisible and invincible! As his fiancee, Lucretia says: "I want a lot of things, and Midas is invulnerable. After taking the fluid, he can do anything......can you imagine a better one? The whole world is spread out for his taking....money, power, anything, You might as well stop fighting him, Mr. West. You can't win." Yet Midas dupes our boys into joining his cause, getting a taste of the diamond elixer at much less strength than Midas' dosage as he very cleverly goes past all of Artie's clever homemade alarms and pays them back for accompanying his devious schemes by planting some of the jewels in out heroes care, blaming them for the theft of the diamonds! .
In his only appearance on the series, Robert Drivas meancingly plays the sophisticated meglomanic Morgan Midas with gleeful passion, helping to make him a very belivable, realistic character. He can easily go from smooth suave and sophistcated one minute to cunning, tricky, and devious the next! makes you wonder if Midas' middle name is Jacob. .
Artie does not have much to do in the disguise department in this particular episode--He only has one disguise, as Count Felix von Schleswig und Holzbergen, yet he pulls it off (no pun intended) with his usual class and pinache--yet his other talents are very much on display on this particular episode: From creating the sophisticated burgler alarms for the diamond dispays to James's exploding walking stick in the teaser. For a mostlly serious episode, he has lots of funny moments, like when he meets Whitey Hughes one-eyed manservant and gets the cold shoulder from him, prompting this great Artie quip: "Boy, I really picked a winner." to creating the diversion in the kitchen, to the quick teaser wherin he tells James that he "Cheated--I used force!" Plus, we get a great moment when Artie encounters and tastes Midas' Beef Strogenauff: "Oh boy that young fellow really knows how to live!" Of course, this is the first mention of Beef Strogenauff in the series: he would later serve it to Triste in the third season's TNOT Dr. Loveless Died.
Not many fights for James West in this particular episode either. Instead we get several great moments of conversation with Midas, the Serbian embassy, Lucretia, and, of course, Midas. One great scene is when James tries to talk to Midas while he is on the high wire being electrocuted, causing his brains to temporarily get sucked out , leading him to the conclusion that Midas probably killed his dear Aunt Lady Margaret Midas in the same fashion.
There are also several features in this episode that would be reused in later episodes: The folding table that houses the Kara would be modified by our boys for the Wanderer and would appear in TNOT Underground Terror and TNOT Running Death. Plus, this is the one of the first appearances of the Barkley House, one of the rare instances to see it in black and white and not in color. And as mentioned, Beef strogenauff would reappear in TNOT Dr. Loveless died.
This episode also features some great teamwork by Jim and Artie as they try to escape from Midas' crooked schemes.
Lucetia is a classy villian and a noble supporter of her fiances' grand schemes. Definitiely one of my favorite female villans in the series. Her accent sounds like it could be Russian.
Also worth noting is the video game-styled sound effects, noted by Midas as "Seperate vibrations of the sound wave" while the people are talking. Not only would that sound be foreign to people in the 1870's, when the original viewers of this broadcast watched this episode in the spring of 1966, they probably reminded them of aliens from some low grade B Sci-Fi movie like Ross' Conquest of Space. .
Some of the Sci-Fi episodes like Lord of Limbo are a litle too out there for my tastes, but Burning Diamond is very well done and produced and is one of my favorite Sci-Fi Themed WWW episodes that receieves a well-deserved...........
9 out of 10 from me.
In the case of The Night of the Burning Diamond, he crafted a very intellegent, exciting hour of Science Fiction-themed WIid Wild West escapist entertainment of the highest order, creating one of the best episodes in the entire series.
The episode begins at the Serbian embassy, where James West is assigned to protect the Kara diamond from a crafty gang of jewel theives. Of course, it isn't easy for our fair James West to get into the Serbian Emabassy. As he later tells Mr. Baines in the middle of the episodes' teaser, "I was challnged by armed guards at the front gate at the entrance to your embassy, and at the corridor of your private chambers. Three times my credentials were checked, and I was searched twice, discreetly of course. And right now, I'm being observed through a peephole disguised by the portrait of your esteeemed ruler." Mr. Baines tells James that the Kara is only shown "For the most priviliged guests in an almost private showing." Yet after displaying the Cara, and after Baines' boasting at how it can never get stolen under it's present conditions--"There's only one door to the room, the hall outside is patrolled 24 hours a day, and we Serbians are jealous of our national treasures."-- The Kara diamond manages to escape under mysteruous circumstances, causing Baines to immediately place the blame on West, leading to one of the best quotes in the entire episode: "Even before I arrived in this country, I heard strange accounts of your talents, but I was unaware that you were a magician." That, in turn, leads to a great fight scene by James as he uses his explosive walking stick to help beat up some Unsurly characters at the Serbian embassy. Occasionally, Mr. Baines gets to be a litle uptight with our boys, but a great moment occurs when he visits the Wanderer, expertly quoted by Niecie in her review:
Baines: A diamond would no more explode than this would! [Takes up billiard ball and shakes it.]
Artie: Don't shake that!
Jim: [Grabs billiard ball and throws it out window, where it explodes.]
"Baines has a lot to learn about hangin' with our boys!"
In time, the mastermind behind this sordid scheme emerges: Morgan Midas, A master jewel thief and occasional scientist, who tinkers with electricity, yet his passion is burning diamonds at 4000 degrees so that he can
steal even more diamonds to make him invisible and invincible! As his fiancee, Lucretia says: "I want a lot of things, and Midas is invulnerable. After taking the fluid, he can do anything......can you imagine a better one? The whole world is spread out for his taking....money, power, anything, You might as well stop fighting him, Mr. West. You can't win." Yet Midas dupes our boys into joining his cause, getting a taste of the diamond elixer at much less strength than Midas' dosage as he very cleverly goes past all of Artie's clever homemade alarms and pays them back for accompanying his devious schemes by planting some of the jewels in out heroes care, blaming them for the theft of the diamonds! .
In his only appearance on the series, Robert Drivas meancingly plays the sophisticated meglomanic Morgan Midas with gleeful passion, helping to make him a very belivable, realistic character. He can easily go from smooth suave and sophistcated one minute to cunning, tricky, and devious the next! makes you wonder if Midas' middle name is Jacob. .
Artie does not have much to do in the disguise department in this particular episode--He only has one disguise, as Count Felix von Schleswig und Holzbergen, yet he pulls it off (no pun intended) with his usual class and pinache--yet his other talents are very much on display on this particular episode: From creating the sophisticated burgler alarms for the diamond dispays to James's exploding walking stick in the teaser. For a mostlly serious episode, he has lots of funny moments, like when he meets Whitey Hughes one-eyed manservant and gets the cold shoulder from him, prompting this great Artie quip: "Boy, I really picked a winner." to creating the diversion in the kitchen, to the quick teaser wherin he tells James that he "Cheated--I used force!" Plus, we get a great moment when Artie encounters and tastes Midas' Beef Strogenauff: "Oh boy that young fellow really knows how to live!" Of course, this is the first mention of Beef Strogenauff in the series: he would later serve it to Triste in the third season's TNOT Dr. Loveless Died.
Not many fights for James West in this particular episode either. Instead we get several great moments of conversation with Midas, the Serbian embassy, Lucretia, and, of course, Midas. One great scene is when James tries to talk to Midas while he is on the high wire being electrocuted, causing his brains to temporarily get sucked out , leading him to the conclusion that Midas probably killed his dear Aunt Lady Margaret Midas in the same fashion.
There are also several features in this episode that would be reused in later episodes: The folding table that houses the Kara would be modified by our boys for the Wanderer and would appear in TNOT Underground Terror and TNOT Running Death. Plus, this is the one of the first appearances of the Barkley House, one of the rare instances to see it in black and white and not in color. And as mentioned, Beef strogenauff would reappear in TNOT Dr. Loveless died.
This episode also features some great teamwork by Jim and Artie as they try to escape from Midas' crooked schemes.
Lucetia is a classy villian and a noble supporter of her fiances' grand schemes. Definitiely one of my favorite female villans in the series. Her accent sounds like it could be Russian.
Also worth noting is the video game-styled sound effects, noted by Midas as "Seperate vibrations of the sound wave" while the people are talking. Not only would that sound be foreign to people in the 1870's, when the original viewers of this broadcast watched this episode in the spring of 1966, they probably reminded them of aliens from some low grade B Sci-Fi movie like Ross' Conquest of Space. .
Some of the Sci-Fi episodes like Lord of Limbo are a litle too out there for my tastes, but Burning Diamond is very well done and produced and is one of my favorite Sci-Fi Themed WWW episodes that receieves a well-deserved...........
9 out of 10 from me.